Shakespeare, 'Othello' and Domestic Tragedy

The first book to explore the ways in which Shakespeare exploits the conventions of the genre of domestic tragedy in Othello.

Often set in domestic environments and built around protagonists of more modest status than traditional tragic subjects, 'domestic tragedy' was a genre that flourished on the Renaissance stage from 1580-1620. This title explores the ways in which Shakespeare exploits the conventions of the genre of domestic tragedy in "Othello"."Often set in domestic environments and built around protagonists of more modest status than traditional tragic subjects, domestic tragedy was a genre that flourished on the Renaissance stage from 1580-1620. Shakespeare, Othello, and Domestic Tragedy is the first book to examine Shakespeares relationship to the genre by way of the King's and Chamberlain's Mens ownership and production of many of the domestic tragedies, and of the genres extensive influence on Shakespeare's own tragedy, Othello. Drawing in part upon recent scholarship that identifies Shakespeare as a co-author of Arden of Faversham, Sean Benson demonstrates the extensive even uncanny ties between Othello and the domestic tragedies. Benson argues that just as Hamlet employs and adapts the conventions of revenge tragedy, so Othello can only be fully understood in terms of its exploitation of the tropes and conventions of domestic tragedy. This book explores not only the contexts and workings of this popular sub-genre of Renaissance drama but also Othellos secure place within it as the quintessential example of the form."